Exeter Book Riddle 39 reconsidered

Studia Neophilologica

Volumn 70, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 139-148

  Harbus, Antonina ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

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EID: 61249452190     PISSN: 00393274     EISSN: 16512308     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00393279808588225     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Old English Syntax, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985), §3555: "The riddler is probably hoping, and may be implying, that his hearer will be unable to meet the challenge (of Riddle 32 and 39)" The use of the subjunctive clause "gif pu mæge" is unique to Riddle 39, and may imply a particularly conditional challenge. A different subjunctive construction is used in Riddle 28: "Gif pu cunne" (13); and Riddle 63: "Secge se pe cunne" (15). Cf. The use of the indicative in Riddle 32: "gif pu const" (12).
2. All Old English citations will be drawn from the standard editions and will be cited according to the conventions and by the short titles used in the Dictionary of Old English, listed in A. diP. Healey and R. L. Venezky, eds, A Microfiche Concordance to Old English: The List of Texts and Index of Editions, Publications of the Dictionary of Old English, 1 Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980). Line numbers will be given in parentheses in the text. English translations are my own.
3. Lists of solutions to this and other Old English riddles are provided by D. K. Fry, "Exeter Book Riddle Solutions," Old English Newsletter 15/1 (1931) pp. 22-33;
4. and Bernard J. Muir, ed., The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry, 2 vols. (Exeter: Exeter Univ. Press, 1994) vol. 2, pp. 616-23.
5. The most recent supporter of the solution 'cloud' is Paul Meyvaert, "The Solution of Old English Riddle 39," Speculum 51 (1976) pp. 195-201, who claims that this riddle is based on Aldhelm's aenigma Nubes.
6. This idea is vigorously denied by Greenfield, p. 97. 'Moon' has been supported by Gregory K. Jember, "Some Hints on Ambiguity and Meaning in Riddle 39," Hiroshima Studies in English Language and Literature 31 (1987) p. 26-37.
7. Suggested by Craig Williamson, ed. The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapell Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1977) pp. 258-65, who rehearses the problems inherent in accepting other solutions.
8. Fascicle B, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1991) s.v. bīcnan sense 4.a.
9. "Old English Riddle 39 'Clear and Visible,'" Anglia 98 (1980) pp. 95-100.
10. Hans Pinsker and Waltraud Ziegler, Die altenglischen Rätsel des Exeterbuchs (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1985) pp. 242-45, where 'cloud' is also considered.
11. "Stanley B. Greenfield's Solution of Riddle (ASPR) 39: 'Dream,'" Notes and Queries 236 (1991) pp. 148-49.
12. Greenfield's argument is found convincing by Muir, Exeter Anthology, vol 2, p. 621.
13. Williamson, p. 8 considers the earlier view of Latin influence to be "overstated" and summarizes the scant evidence: of the hundred or so riddles, only three of which have Latin analogues and two are direct translations.
14. A Microfiche Concordance to Old English, Publications of the Dictionary of Old English, 1 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1980);
15. hereafter MC. All dictionary definitions are from J. Bosworth and T. N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1898)
16. and Supplement by T. N. Toller (Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, 1921); hereafter BT and BTS respectively.
17. Dream (3, 89) and Daniel (123); the word occurs in unrelated instances on six other occasions in the corpus.
18. Bo 27.62.32;
19. Met 20.202;
20. WPol 2.1.1 82;
21. and HomS 170 (MC).
22. Wan 106), "wyrda gerynu"
23. (Dan 147
24. El 584, 809)
25. and "wyrda gepingu" (Dan 541).
26. See, e.g. Gen 20:3; 22:11; 41:16;
27. Ex 3.2;
28. Num 22:22;
29. Dan 2;
30. Matt 1:20;
31. Acts 16:9; 18:9.
32. MB 19 28;
33. GenA 2807;
34. R13 4;
35. And 565;
36. Gll 50 46;
37. MnI 129;
38. and WHom3 25 (MC).
39. R13 3-5.
40. E.g., in Dan 129, 165, and 543.
41. I am grateful to Roberta Frank for bringing this pattern to my attention. A similar alliterative repetition in Riddle 24 has been noted and discussed by Marie Nelson, "The Rhetoric of the Exeter Book Riddles," Speculum 49 (1974) pp. 421-40, at p. 433, who believes that the riddler has employed the device paramoeon so that the sounds of this poem are an "onomatopoeic imitation" of the call of a bird.
42. Andre Welsh, in 'Swallows Name Themselves: Exeter Book 55," American Notes and Queries 3 (1990) pp. 90-93, has applied a similar argument to Riddle 55. He argues that the predominance of sw in the riddle acts as a "visual pun" on the name of the riddle creature, the swallow.
43. On a similar note, Andy Orchard examines the artistic possibilities of additional or non-essential alliteration in "Artful Alliteration in Anglo-Saxon Song and Story," Anglia 113 (1995) pp. 429-63.
44. S in lines 3, 5, 16, 25, and 29;
45. DOE, Fascicle B s.v. bīcnan, sense 3.
46. Prog 1.2 1, 2, 4, 5, 16, 17, 19.
47. The verb is also used in the 'Dream Lunar': Prog 6.1 18.
48. In his dream, Cædmon learned to sing of creation (Bede, 4.50); and the production of The Dream of the Rood is supposedly in response to a dream. The connection between dreams and poetry was a classical commonplace: see the excellent discussion of classical and Christian views on dreams in Francis X. Newman, "Somnium: Medieval Theories of Dreaming and ther Form of Vision Poetry," (Diss., Princeton Univ., 1962), esp. p. 187.
49. See Newman, "Somnium" pp 80-128.
50. The other valuable discussions are Jacques Le Goff, The Medieval Imagination, trans. A. Goldhammer (Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988) pp. 193-231;
51. and Steven F. Kruger, Dreaming in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992), esp. pp. 35-56.
52. See, for example, Macrobius, Comm. 1.3.17-20.
53. Mitchell, §2620, explains that the subjunctive is used only with the 'when' meaning of ponne "due to the hypothetical nature of the clause or sentence."
54. Nelson considers that this device is linked thematically to the poem, in describing the "ultimate negative - death" (p. 430), supporting the solution 'Creature Death,' proposed by Ericka Von Erhardt-Siebold "Old English Riddle No. 39, Creature Death," PMLA 61 (1946) pp. 910-15.
55. Nelson, p. 430, notes that "ne .... ac" is also employed in Riddle 32, 35, and 38.
56. See El 69-71
57. BT, s.v.
58. For a discussion of the Old English vocabulary of misery, see E.G. Stanley. "Old English Poetic Diction and the Interpretation of The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Penitent's Prayer," Anglia 73 (1956) pp. 413-66, at p. 463.
59. On the dream sequence in The Wanderer, see Antonina Harbus, "Deceptive Dreams in The Wanderer," Studies in Philology 43 (1966) pp. 164-79.
60. Beo 2368, and Mx2 19;
61. cf., XSt 73, 446, 578, 712;
62. Jln 430;
63. Guth 575;
64. and Phx 442.
65. With very few exceptions, revelatory ancient and Christian dreams are recounted as unique nocturnal phenomena. Artemidorus of Daldis, writing a dream handbook in the second century A. D., for example, stipulates that a dream must follow another closely, or else be treated as a separate experience because the circumstances of the dreamer change (Robert J. White, trans., The Interpretation of Dreams: Oneirocritica of Artemidorus [Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1975) 1.9. Christian commentators particularly treat the dream as unable to be repeated exactly, often implicitly, by failing to address the possibility of repeated dreams. Multiple dreams do occur in Christian literature, but have a cumulative or dialogic effect, rather than being merely repetitive.
66. See, e.g., Bede's account of Boisil, who reappears to Egbert in a dream to criticise the way in which the instructions given in the first dream have been executed (Ecclesastical History 5.9).
67. Conventionally, true dreams occur after midnight, when the effects of food and drink have diminished or possibly before that time if moderation has been observed (see, e.g. Artemiodorus, Ch. 21; Tertullian, De Anima, Ch. 48;
68. Macrobius, Comm., 1.3.7-8).
69. See Antonina Harbus, "Nebuchadnezzar's Dreams in the Old English Daniel," English Studies 75 (1994) pp. 489-508;
70. and "Text as Revelation: Constantine's Dream in Elene," Neophilologus 78 (1994) pp. 645-53.